Daihatsu Charade Reviews from Malaysia

1993 Daihatsu Charade CS 1.0 petrol 3 sylinder

Summary:

A low performance, noisy and yet economic car

Faults:

The engine is not reliable. This is the 3rd engine of my car. It is very noisy and under power. The highest rotation per minute that I can go when I'm driving in highway is about 5,500rpm. The highest speed is 150km/h. Acceleration is terrible, as it even slower than a Perodua Kancil 850cc from my country.

The air-condition compressor had troubled me for a long time. It cause me RM450 for a re-con one and this is already the 3 times I change my compressor. In tropical country like Malaysia, a car without air-conditioned will produce a "sauna" like effect in the car!

The water pump also seems to be very fragile. It leaks immediately 2 months after I bought my car.

The seats are quite tough, but not comfort enough.

The sound system needs to be upgraded. I've change the original JVC radio-cassette player to a Kenwood CD player. On top of this, a Kenwood amplifier plus two Kenwood 6" X 9" mid-speaker. It sounds better then.

The car reaches its resonance with the speed of 120km/h. Faster than this, the car will be very unstable.

General Comments:

It is an economic car, with petrol consumption of about 6.5l/100km in highway with average speed of 110km/h.

Its performance is kind of low. As mentioned earlier, its acceleration is even slower than a 850cc Perodua Kancil, a product of my country, which is a "serotype" of Daihatsu Mira. The top speed is also quite bad. I have friends who can press until 170km/h, but my Charade just can't do this.

General Comments:

I have had problems from day 3 of owning this car (insufficient sealant and power steering problem), passenger door noises in 8 months, battery failure in 1 year and the current one - fuel pump failure in exactly 2 years. I don't recommend this make to anyone. Someone must be asleep on the assembly line and manufacturing.